Preview: Hurricanes at Sabres

January 06, 2014|Reuters

SportsDirect Inc.

Preview: Hurricanes at Sabres

The Carolina Hurricanes appeared ready to drop out of playoff contention following a five-game winless drought, but they have roared back with a season-high four consecutive victories entering Tuesday's matchup with the Sabres in Buffalo. Each of the four wins have come by one goal for Carolina, which has closed within one point of third-place Washington in the Metropolitan Division. Anton Khudobin has won all three of his starts since missing more than 2 1/2 months with a lower-body injury.

The Sabres own the worst record in the NHL and haven't won on the road in more than two months, but they are starting to become a force on their home ice, ripping off five straight victories at the First Niagara Center. The last three home wins have come by 2-1 scores and featured brilliant efforts by United States Olympian Ryan Miller, who turned aside 106-of-109 shots in that span to improve to 5-1-1 in his last seven overall. The Hurricanes won all three meetings with Buffalo last season.

TV: 7 p.m. ET, FSN (Carolina), MSG (Buffalo)

ABOUT THE HURRICANES (18-16-9): White-hot Jeff Skinner has been the driving force being Carolina's resurgence, pumping home six goals during the four-game winning streak while earning the league's First Star of the Week honors. That includes the second hat trick in a four-week span for Skinner, who has ammassed an NHL-high 16 goals since Dec. 3 to give him 20 on the season despite missing 11 games with a concussion. "He keeps on ticking," coach Kirk Muller said. "As I said before, he's scoring, but he's really scoring clutch goals."

ABOUT THE SABRES (12-26-4): Buffalo will be short-handed along the blue line after defenseman Tyler Myers received a three-game suspension on Monday for an illegal hit to the head of New Jersey's Dainius Zubrus. It marked the second three-game infraction for Myers, who was punished in March 2012 for a boarding incident. The Sabres' struggling power play produced both goals in Saturday's 2-1 win over New Jersey, only the second time this season and first since Oct. 8 that the team scored multiple times with the man advantage.

OVERTIME

1. Hurricanes captain Eric Staal (lower body) was hurt in Saturday's win over the New York Islanders and will not make the trip to Buffalo. He's listed as day-to-day.

2. Miller has yielded a total of eight goals in winning his last six home starts.

3. Skinner is riding a career high-tying five-game point streak, which he first accomplished as a rookie in January 2011.